Man, this one is tough. I enjoy not having to wait, but I’ve experienced this cognitive overload both as a driver getting surprised then aborting my turn abruptly and as a pedestrian when the driver is too busy watching traffic to look at me, making me nervous about stepping into the crosswalk.
I’m not surprised to read this rule causes accidents.
We trialled “left on red” a few years ago in Queensland, Australia and it didn’t go ahead because it caused too many accidents/incidents.
And after driving in the US I found right on red to be a pain in the arse because it wasn’t consistent. Some intersections you could, some intersections you couldn’t, and I couldn’t discern any particular difference between intersections, it appeared to be just whatever happened to be convenient for motorists.
In Australia we have a lot of left turn slip lanes instead of this kind of rule. When those lanes are there you can “turn left at any time with care”. Those lanes usually have pedestrian crossings across them so pedestrians can reach the main intersection crossing.That’s not usually a big deal for surprise interactions as the slip lane is usually at a 45 degree angle and the crossing is directly across your field of view like normal.
And driving culture in Australia treats pedestrian crossings as something you don’t fuck with. If there’s someone even looking vaguely like they’re thinking of crossing, cars will pull up. You learn not to stand near pedestrian crossings here if you’re not immediately planning to cross as you end up constantly having to wave cars past.
Man, this one is tough. I enjoy not having to wait, but I’ve experienced this cognitive overload both as a driver getting surprised then aborting my turn abruptly and as a pedestrian when the driver is too busy watching traffic to look at me, making me nervous about stepping into the crosswalk.
I’m not surprised to read this rule causes accidents.
We trialled “left on red” a few years ago in Queensland, Australia and it didn’t go ahead because it caused too many accidents/incidents.
And after driving in the US I found right on red to be a pain in the arse because it wasn’t consistent. Some intersections you could, some intersections you couldn’t, and I couldn’t discern any particular difference between intersections, it appeared to be just whatever happened to be convenient for motorists.
In Australia we have a lot of left turn slip lanes instead of this kind of rule. When those lanes are there you can “turn left at any time with care”. Those lanes usually have pedestrian crossings across them so pedestrians can reach the main intersection crossing.That’s not usually a big deal for surprise interactions as the slip lane is usually at a 45 degree angle and the crossing is directly across your field of view like normal.
And driving culture in Australia treats pedestrian crossings as something you don’t fuck with. If there’s someone even looking vaguely like they’re thinking of crossing, cars will pull up. You learn not to stand near pedestrian crossings here if you’re not immediately planning to cross as you end up constantly having to wave cars past.